Abstract:

The central issue at stake in this study can by formulated by asking the
question as to how transmission and change in Batswana building and wall
decoration in the North West Province can be opened up and interpreted via
an intrinsically parergonal approach.
Transmission and change in the context of Batswana building and wall
decoration offer important parameters for the development of an African
nation within the contemporary postmodern view of society. These insights
are of importance for a parergonal understanding of essential changes in the
multi-cultural situation in South Africa.
The notion of living space is of central importance for mankind. This
constitutes the space within which the individual lives and completes his lifecycle.
The living space in influenced by the processes of transmission and
change which in turn are essential for growth and progress.
The Batswana arts of building and wall decoration in North West cannot be
seen in isolation from its socio-cultural and historic past because it provides a
specific framework with a fixed viewpoint for purposes of viewing realities
such as transmission and change; a framework aimed at making it possible to
uncover perception of the hidden, the parergonal. The uncovering of the
parergonal fulfils a central role in the socio-cultural imperatives for action
among the Batswana. The framework thus established has to be constructed
against a background of socio-cultural and parergonal values such as the
cosmology and the cosmography as well as the symbolic values of the
Batswana.
The over-arching aim therefore was to do research in order to be able to
indicate how transmission and change of the arts of building and wall
decoration of the Batswana in North West could be uncovered and interpreted
through such an intrinsically parergonal approach.
The study is essentially embedded in a post-colonial context. It can also be
seen as imbricated in further post-colonial contexts such as feminism and
deconstruction. Post-colonialism is a wide-ranging term within the wider
context of post-modernism. In this study the concepts pre-colonial, colonial
and post-colonial are linked to the historic colonial development of the
Batswana in the present North West Province. The terms pre-Phatlalatsa,
Phatlalatsa and post-Phatlalatsa are linked with post-colonial concepts.
As regards the work method, the general formative principle was the following,
viz. that the study rests on exploration, description and contextualization
(within which the parergonal is embedded).
Essentially it was discovered that
Transmission and change give a good indication of parergonal socio-cultural
presence;
The parergonal imperative is adjusted through socio-cultural concepts and
factors effected through the transmission and change of alien influences;
The parergonal concepts are found to have changed the hierarchical internal
layout of space and the working of space within a settlement pattern;
The parergonal notion of architectonic symbolism has changed from the
notion of the house as fortified symbol of protection to the house as
expression of individual preference and taste;
The parergonal concepts of the cosmological and the cosmographic as
controlled by the individual did not change;
Transmission and change through the re-use of building materials to some
extent maintain parergonal continuity; and
There is a parergonal link between culture and production that is reflected in
financial wealth and production.
The further proposed contribution made by the study is to be found in the
multimedia package constituting an essential part of the total manuscript.